Down to Earth
by Droiture LeReve
Summary: Jack thinks about Carly, thinks about what's happened to him, and thinks about what's happened in the past. Will be multi-chaptered! Rated T for safety.
1. Chapter 1

Note: THERE IS NOT ENOUGH OF THIS PAIRING ON THE INTERNET. Why is it that the canon pairings always get ignored? Especially the adorable ones?

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's or any Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise. I don't own any of the characters you see in this fanfiction, as this fanfiction is created purely for entertainment purposes and not for profit whatsoever. Besides, if I wanted to make a profit, I can do better than Yu-Gi-Oh!. Just kidding. But seriously, don't sue me. Also, I got my "I owe somebody mass amounts of prayer and thanks" line from Least I Can Do, the GREATEST WEBCOMIC TO EVER EXIST. Go. Do it now. Go look at it. I'll wait. I don't own that either, but it's amazing.

**Down to Earth**

What cruel twist of fate brought me here?

Currently, I, Jack Atlas, former King, the Master of Faster, the greatest turbo duelist the world had ever seen...

Was lounging on the couch of an 19-year-old girl, my arm in a sling, barely able to dress myself without assistance. How did I end up like this? God, it seems that one day I was the King, and the next day I was lounging around the house in a tank-top and a pair of jeans, while a hyperactive teenage girl attempted for the tenth time to make dinner without burning something. Sometimes I wonder about her. She's certainly an odd one, with her thick glasses, her tendency to chatter on, her clumsiness, her bashfulness, and her inability to touch anything without it blowing up, breaking, or catching on fire. (Seriously, she was boiling water once and the pot caught on fire somehow. The fireman who let us back in afterwards was laughing his arse off!)

However, I do owe my life to her. She saved me from the hospital, brought me here, and kept me safe from the massive crowds of paparazzi that swarmed the streets looking for a story. She took me where I needed to go, cleaned, cooked, and tended to my broken arm, all with a smile on her face and a kind word. Which God smiled on me in order to bring me to such a wonderful girl? As soon as I'm able to drive myself anywhere, I'm going to a church, a temple, and a synagogue, or whatever religious buildings happen to be around. I figure I owe somebody mass amounts of prayer and thanks.

Any other woman, any other _human, _would have gotten fed up with me by now, I'm sure. I happen to know, and admit, that my personality is not exactly what most would call "pleasant". I happen to understand that I can be rather abrasive and, dare I say, kind of cold at times. Any other person having to take care of someone like me would have gotten fed up with me and dumped me out ages ago. But not Carly. She took all my cutting words with a grain of salt and kept right back coming for more. I can't quite tell if she's extremely patient or merely mad. Even when I snapped at her, yelled at her, told her I wished I could be anywhere else, she simply smiled at me and replied with, "Come on, Jack, just eat some dinner. You'll feel better in the morning, I promise."

She is simply wonderful, and God only knows if she knows I feel that way.

Listen to me! I sound like a romantic sap from a foreign romance film. But every word of it is true. I'm not sure how or when I began feeling this way, but the fact of the matter is, I love her.

I love her to bits, to death, and I'm simply _terrified _to tell her. I, the self-proclaimed King of Duels, the man who's callously brushed off the anguish and pain of a thousand men, is terrified to tell a girl I love her. What's wrong with me? Is this broken arm of mine infecting my brain somehow? Can broken arms do that? I don't even know! See? Look at me, I'm freaking out!

Ok, Jack, ok, just calm yourself down. You've got to calm down. After all, you're 19 years old, you should have the mental capacity necessary to calm yourself in this situation. Relax, Jack, you're not some sweaty, squeaking, bumbling lanky idiot asking a girl on a date.

You're a sweaty, squeaking, bumbling lanky _duelist _asking a girl on a date.

Oh, who's talking about dates? She probably doesn't even like you, with all the verbal abuse you've lashed on her! All the mean, hateful things you've said to her, all the cold brush-offs, the noncommittal answers to important questions, the tense, cold tone your voice gets when you're upset....

Ok, that's it. I need to stop arguing with myself. I must look like I'm insane, over here, mumbling to myself. Having inane arguments with the voices in my head isn't going to get me any closer to talking to Carly without sounding like a stuck-up douchebag.

Because truly, all she's trying to do is help. She's helped me in countless ways, from small trivial things like grabbing a soda from the fridge while she's up to much larger things, such as getting my spirits back up when I felt like I was the lowest of the low.

Carly _gets _me, that girl, and I'm not sure how she does it. She's sort of the simple type. She doesn't want a lot of elaborate things in life, and she doesn't really want any more than what she has. She's not greedy, but instead is a very generous girl. I'm not sure how she's able to understand me, but she does, and I thank God for it. Somehow she's able to get inside my head, inside my _heart, _in ways no one else ever could, not even Yusei, and I've known him for as long as my memory spans.

And I've only known her for a little over a month.

But none of that matters anymore. I love her, love what she's done for me, love that I now have somebody to fight for, and love that she's dragged me back up when I couldn't get any lower.

I love Carly Carmine completely and fully, forever.


	2. Chapter 2

Note: Again, I must lament that there is NOT ENOUGH OF THIS PAIRING ON THE INTERNET EVER. We need more! MORE! MORE I SAY MY MINIONS, MORE!! Ahem.....

I don't own YGO5D. Nope. Never.

This chapter is from a 3rd party POV, not through Jack's so I apologize to any fans who liked the crazy OOC Jack I had last chapter. He's coming back, I promise.

Also sorry about the crazy abundance of Jack talking here. I realize he's not nearly as talkative in the show, but imagining him saying it all was just too cute, I had to keep going. I just love his accent so much! Argh!

About the title. I wanted it to be "The Blind Leading the Blind" but I kept misspelling "Blind", making it "Blond", and I went, 'well, Jack is blonde, and Carly is somewhat blind.... Why not? Parody time!' So there you go.

**The Blind Leading the Blonde**

Carly looked over at her new house-mate. He sat on the couch, mumbling to himself, his left eyebrow twitching every once in a while. Carly noticed his eyebrow tended to do that when he was either thinking too much or he'd had too much coffee. Judging by the six mugs that lay scattered around him, some on their sides slowly dripping the last bits of their contents onto the floor, Carly guessed it was the second one. Jack could be so messy sometimes, though with a broken arm, it was hard to blame him. Carly idly wondered if Jack was this much of a slob when it came to his own house. Carly quietly darted in and picked up the mugs, being careful not to disturb what looked like Jack arguing with himself. What could he be arguing with himself about?

Carly looked at Jack intently through her thick, Coke-bottle glasses. Curse her and her near-blindness. Those thick glasses almost made it even harder to see and was what accounted for some of her clumsiness. Yes, they cured her nearsightedness, but somehow cured it a little too well and now she kept tripping over things right in front of her due to her distorted perception of depth. It wasn't her fault. She just needed a new prescription. She just didn't have the money, and with Jack laying low, it would seem to be a little much to ask to ask him to purchase her a pair of new glasses. After all, he was the guest in Carly's home.

Carly attempted to silently place the mugs in the sink so as to not disturb Jack's little inner battle, but in true Carly fashion ended up tripping over the wire leading to the toaster and all six mugs went crashing to the floor, shattering into many pieces, and knocking Jack rudely from his thoughts.

"Ahhh! What happened?" He cried in surprise. Carly popped up.

"Nothing, it's nothing! Sorry about that, Jack! Don't worry about it, I've got it all under control--ouch!" Carly had accidentally cut herself on one of the shards, and her palm bled freely. Jack got up to see what had happened.

"Carly, you alright? Do you need help?"

"No, no, I'll be fine! I'll be fine, I just need to grab the broom, and the trash can and _ouch!" _Carly cut herself again, dropping the shards, which broke into more pieces upon impact with the floor.

"Carly, you klutz, get up. You're going to hurt yourself worse." Jack dragged Carly up from the floor and pulled her into the living room, where he sat her down and proceeded to wipe the blood from her hands with an old handkerchief he'd carried around since his days in the Satellite. "You clumsy thing, why couldn't you have just asked me to pick up the mugs myself? It was my fault they were all over your floor, I've been too busy thinking about myself to realize I've been leaving things everywhere."

"Well, you were... the guest... I didn't want to..."

"Didn't want to offend me? Please, dear, it's not that big a deal. I grew up in the slums, it's not like I've been spoiled my whole life."

"Really? I... I didn't know that, Jack."

"No one does. That's the point." Jack answered, tying his old rag in a knot around her hand to stop the bleeding. "There, that should do it. You sit here, I'll clean up the broken cups, alright? You've done too much for me already."

"Jack, wait, don't worry about it, I got it!" Carly tried to jump up but Jack gently pushed her back down again.

"Carly, you've done so much for me already. You saved me, brought me here, you've made dinner every night, tended to my arm, cooked, cleaned, and generally worked yourself half to bloody death for me, and for what? All I've done is make things harder on you. Isn't it time I did something for you back? I mean, honestly. It just doesn't seem fair otherwise, and if there's one thing I want to be known for, it's being fair. " Jack explained, sweeping up the shards quickly and dumping them in the bin.

"I.... Thank you, Jack..." Carly mumbled, blushing madly. Jack smiled slightly and went back over to her. He pulled her glasses off her face and closed them, sticking one arm of the glasses down her shirt to keep them in place there. She blinked at the new way she saw things without her glasses. "Jack--?"

"You know, you're much prettier without the glasses." Jack said simply. "I always liked to see the eyes of the person I'm talking to. I guess it's a little habit I picked up in the Satellite all those years ago. Do you have any odd habits, Carly?"

"Well, besides being able to fall asleep in strange places?"

"I'd call that more of a talent than a habit, dear."

Carly blushed at being called "dear" for the second time. She chalked it up to Jack's speech pattern and a minor slip of the tongue. He probably called _everybody _"dear", right? Right?

"Well, then, I... dunno..."

"You want to know something Carly? I used to have the oddest habit as a child. When I wanted something, I would stop at nothing to get it. And here's the odd part. They'd be completely useless things I wanted, like a lipstick tube. I didn't want the lipstick, just the tube it came in. And I remember, I bugged Martha, our foster mother, for that tube for ages.... She finally gave it to me. I was so happy, but then thirty seconds later I forgot entirely what I wanted it for." Jack laughed, "I carried that habit all the way up through high school. I'd blow my entire week's pocket money on something completely useless to me, only to forget why I bought it in the first place. Yusei once had to literally steal my wallet and lock it up to ensure I didn't blow our grocery money. I remember buying a pair of high heeled shoes not two-or-three months ago on impulse, then bringing them home and forgetting why I bought them. I mean, what am I ever going to need a pair of heeled shoes for? I eventually just gave them to Mina. Now isn't that just the oddest thing?"

Carly let out a chuckle. "I guess that is just a little odd, huh?"

"See? Carly, you're not alone in this world. I know it seems that life's just basically taken a huge dump on you up until now, but you've got to remember that you and I are basically the same. You and I have both had to try and eek out a living on what we're good at. You're good at reporting stories for the newspapers, and I'm good at dueling. We've both let windows of opportunity pass us by, and yet we both took one opportunity and ran with it, and where are we now? Right here, right now. If I hadn't left my hospital room that night, or you hadn't snuck in wearing your little pink nurse outfit-- which looked lovely on you, by the way-- we wouldn't be sitting here, chatting. I'd be stuck in a bed with people shoving microphones in my face and screaming questions at me, and you'd be in the back of that same crowd, being crushed underneath the reporters who were just a bit more bold. You see?"

"I... I think I understand what you're trying to say, Jack. You're saying that opportunities come and go, and when one comes knocking, you can't let it slip by or you might not ever get it back. Am I right?"

"You're absolutely right, Carly, and that's why, I'm finally going to throw open this window of opportunity and do something I've been meaning to do since the day I met you."

Jack pressed his lips to Carly's in a sweet kiss that tried so desperately to let her know how he felt, how he'd always felt, and how he'd always feel. Carly squeaked in surprise, but didn't object. Jack pulled away.

"Carly, there's just something about you that I can tell is the most wonderful thing in the world. I didn't want to come off too strong! I.... have a tendency to do that. So I was afraid to tell you.... please forgive me."

"Jack, the reason I take care of you and the reason I do everything I can to help you is _because_ I love you and want to help you. I was afraid to tell _you, _because you're rich and famous and I'm just simple ol' Carly Carmine, trying to eek out a living in the crappiest apartment in town and not being able to hold down a job. I didn't think you'd feel the same way."

"You're down-to-earth, Carly, you have realistic goals. You're not one of those people who builds a deck and goes 'I'm going to fly to the moon!' You're one of those people who builds a deck and says, 'If anyone wants to duel me, sure, why not?' You're very sweet, and caring, and you've done so much in so little time. It's like you never stop! You're endearing and you really make me feel like I'm at home here, where I never felt like that well, back home. Whenever I'm out somewhere and I think 'should be time to go home', I don't think of the mansion, or anything like that, I think of right here, in this room, drinking a cup of tea and watching inane soap operas while I hear you clatter about in the kitchen. It makes me feel like I _have _a home, that I _have _a place to go home to and feel comfortable and at-ease. In my old mansion, it was nothing but cold, blank white walls and the occasional sound of Mina sneaking past the door to check up on me. It was too quiet, too sterile. I've come to love the loud noises and unpredictable events that come with being here. And I've come to love you, causing it all, Carly."

"Oohhh, Jack!" Carly dived on Jack, burying her head in his shoulder. Jack held her there, smiling. He then noticed little motions she made that felt oddly like sobbing.

"Carly, why are you crying?"

"I'm just... _sniff...._really, really happy, Jack! In one day, you've managed to make all my dreams come true. I guess.... you really are the King."

Carly kissed Jack again, who reciprocated it with twice the energy. He broke off, slightly dizzy from the adrenaline. "It's good to be the King." he commented. He leaned in for another kiss.

The door sounded with three distinct knocks. "Oh damn." Carly muttered, "It's my mother."

"How can you tell?"

"It's always her, looking for the rent. I'm already 3 months behind. She's letting me live here at a discount but not for free."

"How much is your monthly rent?"

"$450 a month."

Jack did some quick math in his head, and grabbed his check-book from his coat. He answered the door. "Mm, yes?" He glowered down. Carly's mother seemed to not notice him, and instead brushed past him to get to Carly.

"Well, of course, because I _totally _wasn't just standing there or anything...." Jack mumbled quietly to himself.

"Carly! You know what time it is.... Where's the rent, Carly? You're three months behind, and it's not fair to the other tenants. I can't keep letting you slip by, honey, I need the money too."

"Yes, Mother, and I promise, it's coming, I just need a bit more--"

Before Carly could finish her excuse, Jack handed Mother Dearest a scrap of paper, and sent her on her way.

"What in the--"

"She won't bother you for another few months, dear."

"D-did you j-just pay my rent for me?"

"Mm-hmm. I figured I've got the money, why not? Plus, your mother interrupted when I was trying to kiss you, which was terribly rude. Easier to just give her the money so I could continue sweeping you off your feet." With those words, Jack quite literally swept her off her feet, picking her up with one fluid motion. "Mm, dear, you're so light."

Carly blushed, though she couldn't figure out if it was because Jack was carrying her or because he'd called her skinny. Either way, her face shone red. Jack chuckled and dumped her on her bed, pulling the covers up to her chin. "Here, you sleep here tonight. I'll take the sofa. I've let you fall asleep at your computer one too many times." Jack was about to leave when Carly grabbed his wrist.

"Don't go. Stay here." She squeaked, like a child. Jack cocked his head to the side a moment but eventually crawled under the covers with her. She immediately cuddled up to his chest, and fell asleep, snoozing happily. Jack fell asleep soon after, his right arm wrapped around her and his left arm positioned in an awkward way so as to not injure it further.

Carly woke up once in the middle of the night to find Jack's belt buckle digging into her stomach, and sleepily unbuckled the belt and slipped it off him before going back to sleep, the belt still clutched in her bandaged hand. Carly's glasses lay haphazardly on the floor, having fallen out of her shirt.

Jack woke up early the next morning due to some pain in his wrist from having slept on it a bit wrong. He looked down and saw Carly still snoozing away, snoring lightly from her place on his chest. He smiled and kissed her head, then went back to sleep.


End file.
